Desperate for Mesprit
by all of the doughnuts
Summary: Why do living beings chase each other? Because they run away!


_While watching a parade, the idea of a group of ordinary people chasing something of supernatural nature struck me and I wanted to write about it. I do not own Pokemon._

"Mesprit. The Emotion Pokemon. Legend states that it taught humans the nobility of joy, sorrow, and pain. In that spirit, we're here on Route 203, where a gathering of hearty souls...no, that's all wrong." Roxy the reporter lowered her microphone and slumped. "Can I try it again?"

"We need to hurry up with it," said Olli the cameraman. "These people never stay in one place for any amount of time. That thing could move at any minute, and then they'll all go chase after it."

"_That thing_ has a name!" called a girl who was crouched in a circle of crouching youth. "Her name is Mesprit!" One of the youth wore a Poketch. It was set to the Marking Map application. All of the youth were either staring at it or trying to. None of them wore much; the general aesthetic seemed to be skirts or shorts that had once been jeans, undershirts, and well-worn Running Shoes. They needed baths and a good night's sleep, although the occasional dip in a body of water helped somewhat.

There were several similar huddles. Not all of them were teens. There were school kids. Cooltrainers. Cyclists. A vendor or several of greasy delicacies. And so on.

Jubilife TV was alerted to their presense one Thursday afternoon when a ten-year-old child on a bike burst into their building and asked to use the phone to call the authorities. After claiming to be a stalking victim, the kid abruptly left when shouting outside indicated said pursuers were close behind.

Interviewers Roxy and Olli were sent to follow the crowd post-haste. Unknown to them, the crowd was not chasing the kid, but rather what the kid was chasing: Mesprit, the Being of Emotion, which made its way around Sinnoh. Roxy and Olli only found out about this when Mesprit stopped and so, in turn, did everybody else, so Roxy got to shove microphones in their faces.

"We got the idea from this guy in Johto who's doing the same thing," said one of the boys. "I think. That's why I heard we were doing it. He's chasing Suicune. He's been chasing him for years. He chased him all over Kanto, too, I think."

"I dunno who started it, they picked me up in Eterna," another one told them. "I heard that there was Mesprit, and a kid on a bike following her, and somebody started going along with the kid. And it grew, but then the kid got away or something."

"Sometimes it's night," said a girl, scratching her scalp. "Sometimes it's cold. Sometimes we haven't slept or eaten. But we chase Mesprit wherever."

"And how long have you been out here?" asked Roxy.

"Um...two weeks?"

"Amazing," Roxy marvelled.

Upon interviewing the vendors, Roxy learned that Mesprit's pursuers had yet to run out of money to buy food with. "I dunno what I'm gonna do when they run out," one of them said. "I keep restocking whenever they rest near a town...they could leave without me, but it's worth the risk. They uh...they like junk food. They came prepared. I know sometimes they grab food from towns."

"But nothing serious?" asked Roxy.

"No, not really."

"Good." Jubilife TV couldn't do charming little features on public menaces, now could they?

Upon asking why they chased Mesprit, they met with several opinions on the subject.

"Be_cause_," said one of the girls. "Mesprit can get rid of your emotions just by touching you. So if you touch her you'll never be sad again, _duh_."

"Because she's cute!" said another. "And pink!"

"Because the girls here are hot," at least two of the guys answered.

"Everybody else was doing it..."

"We want to go where she's going."

"It's all the fun of standing in line for stuff, but even better!" Not one of them answered "to catch it."

"I know why they're chasing it," said Olli. "Because it-"

"MESPRIT IS MOVING!" screamed somebody wearing a Poketch. "GO, GO, GO!"

"No!" Roxy wailed. "We never got the intro!"

"Get in the car, then!" said Olli, running back to their car. "Let's go with them!"

They had to pull a couple of people off the car just to get in it. Even once they managed to pile in, somebody hung on the back, thinking that the car would outstrip the crowd. However, Jubilife decided at one point that all its employees should drive environmentally friendly automobiles.

"Step on it!" demanded Roxy.

"I'm pushing it as it is," said Olli. "You want me to start running people over?"

"We're trailing...behind...a ten-year-old...on a _bike_! A _bicycle_! And _pedestrians_!" wheezed Roxy.

"So?"

"_We're in a car_!"

"It runs on batteries, woman, what did you expect?!?"

"Oh, you can just go straight to Hell!"

"You are way too into this," said Olli.

"There's a mob of kids running around Sinnoh half-naked," said Roxy. "Stealing food and chasing a legendary Pokemon. Inquiring minds want to know, Olli! Sinnoh wants to know!"

"What about the kid on the bike?" asked Olli. "I've seen that kid before. Why didn't we do this during the Mount Coronet scare, huh? Not at the top of Mount Coronet. But the kid on the bike went up Mount Coronet. Some team with more grit than us camped out at the bottom of the mountain and watched. We're not the news, Roxy, we're Sinnoh Now. We're chasing it because it's cute and pink. They're chasing it because it runs away. If we were the news we'd just chase the kid on the bike."

"Stop! They're stopping," said Roxy. She opened the car door before Olli even started to slow down.

"Our viewers don't care about the _news_," said Olli. "So please calm down. We could go home now, with what we have, and we'd be fine." He stopped the car and Roxy hopped out of it.

"Excuse me," she asked of the first panting, exhausted person she found. "You're aware that someone else is chasing Mesprit as well? What do you think is their intent, if anything? To touch it? To follow it wherever it's going? To...to catch it?"

"_Catch_ Mesprit?" he scoffed. "Like, with a Pokeball? I don't think so."

"What if that happened, though?" asked Roxy. "What, hypothetically, would your group do?"

"But that's never gonna happen," he grinned, shaking his head.

"We'd chase them!" said a young woman who had been listening in. "We'd chase whoever did it around and see how they like it! Yeah! 'Attle teach 'em!" This sentiment was echoed by the surrounding chasers. One of them struck up a singalong.

_Betray not your anger, lest she will come_

_Weep not with sorrow, lest she will draw near_

_When joy and enjoyment come natural as the very air, that is happiness_

_Let such be blessed by the hand of Master Mesprit_

"And they sing traditional Sinnoh folk music about their idol," mused Roxy, facinated. "Ancient hymns, telling of-"

"They made it up," muttered Olli, rolling his eyes. "Listen to it. There's no tune. They're singing random notes. They got the words out of a book, I bet." He recorded their song and Roxy's reflecting anyway. They sang it a few more times before it dissolved into applause.

"That was lovely!" Roxy told them.

"Do the intro," said Olli.

"Oh, right," said Roxy. "Are we rolling?"

"Yes! Go!"

"Sorry! Ahem. Betray not your anger, lest she will come, weep not with sorrow, lest she will draw near...the legendary Pokemon Mesprit of Lake Verity, the Being of Emotion has been sighted roaming Sinnoh...and these hard-core devotees have resolved to follow. Stampeding through Sinnoh's routes, unafraid of the elements or sleep deprivation, Sinnoh Now has no doubt that they'll find whatever it is they're looking for."

"Cut. Very good," said Olli. "Now let's go back to Jubilife."

Roxy nodded. Olli put his camera and her microphone in the car as Those Who Chase Mesprit shrieked that she was moving again. "Through the cave!" they cried, spraying the air around their persons with Repel.

"Let's go watch," said Roxy. "Maybe it's in there. Maybe they'll catch up with it."

"_No_," said Olli. "Roxy-"

Roxy was determined. "Just through the cave. We'll go back to Jubilife if they don't find it. Besides, we still don't really know why they chase Mesprit."

"They are chasing Mesprit," Olli repeated. "Because it runs away."

"Don't you think it has to do with it being a legendary Pokemon?"

"No."

"...prove me wrong. Leave the camera, it won't go anywhere. If we start running now we can catch up."

"...fine. When they catch up with it, I'll prove you wrong."

Who could say if they would ever get back to the camera?


End file.
